Considering getting a dog but I'm a clean freak - will the two mix!?

[digestiveandacupoftea]

I'm starting to get broody about getting a dog and dc would love one (yes I know not just for Christmas etc!)

BUT I'm a bit of a clean freak and I get that dogs bring in mess, mud etc. Just how much of an impact do they have?

This is very early stage and I am being very naive and clueless so this isn't a decision I'd ever make lightly and I will do lots of thinking. I just want to get views on how much mess they are...if it's a lot then it won't be for us.

for me it is not that big a deal

I think it depends on the dog and your home set up how much mess is made.

I am pretty laid back about mess. I have a spaniel and glass doors from the house to the garden which is turfed. Dog walks for us mean swimming in the sea or chasing a ball in the mud. However much I clean there is always hair on my sofa, muddy smudge marks on the doors, paw prints on the floor and a faint smell of dog.

My friend is a total neat freak. She has a miniture shnauzer and a totally paved garden. Dog walks for them mean on lead walks on pavements. He's non shedding so there is no hair in the house. There is no mud in the garden for him to bring in and they wetwipe his paws before allowing him inside after walks. They allso wipe his bum with a wetwipe after he poos. Their house is always spotless and the dog hasn't really impacted on that.

Just make sure you really think about the sort of dog that will fit your family

Thank you for your thoughts. My gut feel based on all this is to continue admiring cute doggies from afar but not to get one as it will not be for me!

You could always get your doggy fix doing some volunteer walking for a rescue, maybe signing up to the Cinnamon Trust to help an elderly person to keep their dog exercised . All of the benefits of dog walking but no mud or bodily fluids in your home!

I think it depends. Do you like your house to be clean, or do you just like cleaning. If the second, you will be in heaven with a dog. You can cleaning up marks on the walls, little doggy footprints, dog hair and chewed bits and pieces all day long!!!

(Wetwipe dog's bum after he poos? the mind boggles!)

digestive you'll get a v good idea if you invite a dog owning friend round, or have a friend's dog to stay overnight. If as I used to, you go Doh, bless as when they've gone you pick up a tumbleweed of hair, you know it's meant to be!
Dogs are very different in mess though; definitely go for short hair and big dog= more wear and tear on the house.

Merrymouse - I like a clean house and don't like cleaning

My sofa has one normal arm and one chewed arm
I have no cushions, they are in the back garden
I hoover so much, I cant quite believe it
My house does smell like dogs, no matter how many windows I open, how much stuff is spayed.
Wet dog smell is vile
Bright yellow bile? Fox poo? Muddy paw prints on every window?
Yes, yes, yes

would I ever be without them?
No

*sprayed, even

You could volunteer as a fosterer for one of the rescues? This way you'd get a real insight into owning and a dog and if the mess was really making you crazy, you'd know that you'd only have it for a limited time until the dog went to its new owners. You could then decide wether or not having a dog suits you?

leather sofa - scratch marks and large chew hole in the bottom
carpet - several chew holes
banisters - teeth marks
dining chairs - ditto
walls - mud splatters
new boots - eaten
favourite hat - eaten
various toys - eaten
floors - hoovered and cleaned daily
children - slightly nibbled

That's without cleaning up vomited tripe from the carpet plus other various poo/wee/puke accidents.

I have to Hoover do much more than I ever thought possible but I hate the house being messy. We have a large off cut of carpet that lives under our sofa during the day when we are not in the lounge. It comes out in the evening for the dog to lie on. We have tiled floor all through the rest of downstairs.

She is messy though & can wreak havoc on a room when all I have done is pop to the loo! She hasn't eaten/ chewed anything if importance yet.
On the positive side I have trained her to lie on a towel when she comes indoors so I can give her paws a quick clean. It doesn't stop her doing a full body shake of wet fur though!

No.
Hth

Oh, dogs are manky. They smell, track all manner of filth through the house and spread their dna liberally. But when it's your dog, and you love it, you don't mind. A bit like dc's.

We have mud-splattered walls, hair as a condiment, some dubious-looking stains on the carpet, and a general odour of dog throughout the house. Sorry.

If I was starting again, I'd make the house more dog-proof (didn't have dogs when we moved in): hard flooring, washable walls, leather sofa.

Puppies will wee on your floors and chew your furniture. A house-trained adult dog is less likely to do this, but our old dog had continence issues towards the end of his life -- personally I didn't mind cleaning up after him as I loved him and it wasn't his fault. But that might have been difficult to deal with for someone obsessive about the cleanliness of their house.

Don't do it.

I'm not a clean freak and even I get pissed off at the mess. Not so much the hair as the muddy footprints and the mud up the walls when they shake, and the doggy smell.

It's all worth it to me. It just depends on how much you want a dog and how likely you are to get fed up.

They are worth all the cleaning in the world to me but I did feel dispair when the GSD shook mud all up my freshly painted hallway after a walk!

I only use hard wearing, scrubbable paint. We have wooden floors throughout. Our stair carpet is a mud hiding beige. I bought a Miele cat and dog. I groom the dog weekly, and he is clipped regularly. I go through Febreeze like it's going out of fashion (if making your house smell of synthetic flowers was ever in fashion) and obsessively sniff my sofas. Oh, and light many, many candles. And there are lots of reed diffusers scattered about. You can limit the chaos, and you don't have to live with dirt. But you will have to up your cleaning considerably and accept that no matter how clean you are, people will walk in to your house and know that there's a dog in residence. Now, I personally think there's a clean dog smell, and a stinky dog smell. Clean dog is noticeable if they're next to you, but just smells animally. Stinky dog is that fetid, damp nasal assault. I can live with clean dog.

Move to a hot country. We live in Australia and our 11 month old Lab lives outside, her choice!!!

Oddly, my tw DDs are more obsessed with having an immaculate house than I am. They've made countless Rotas and lists and have all these organisation plans. ( I don't know where they get it from, I couldn't care less). We have a 3 month old bolognese puppy;she doesn't smell of anything but her shampoo and she doesn't moult and she's small. She is also a bit fussy so isn't a huge fan of mud etc but is easy to clean in 10 minutes when she does get muddy. Our breeders did a great job of housetraining but i suppose that is just luck really. You really wouldn't noice she was there, and doesn't interfere with the organisation regime whatsoever only she is a bit pathetic and a true lap dog, so she wants cuddles all the time. They really are the perfect breed for the houseproud owner, if you are willing to put a bit of effort in but they are unfortunately quite rare. We know another family who are also extremely houseproud, but they ended up returning their cockapoo after a couple of months because they couldn't deal with the effort. So it really depends.

I've just come in from a very wet muddy walk with three dogs. If dirt in the house bothered me I would be crying by now. Mud dries and you hoover it up, but until then...
Can't believe no one has mentioned fox poo yet. :)

My house is ruined by my dogs.

We have wood floors, washable paint, leather sofas and throws everywhere but still I find myself scrubbing mud from every surface most days.

They have also broken handles, scratched paint and their nails have gouged at my lovely wood floors. Even my windows are smeared with dog snots

Good job I love them but I do envy my friends with immaculate hair free show homes.

I'm a clean freak too but we chose a breed which is smallish, doesn't smell and doesn't shed. I still steam mop the kitchen daily and Hoover the floors that he is allowed on daily but with 2 boys I was doing that anyway and the dog is soooo worth it.

Dogs are living things asks get sick. Even if you keep them groomed, get the ones that don't shed, etc., they bring with them the detritus of life. As all living beings do.